The Tenth Tribe
by hamishwarfare
Summary: A small white lie here or there dose wonders at keeping the peace. Unfortinatly they can cause more harm than good; especially if the young lady is as independent as Jade Chan. When promises are broken and lies are discovered darkness comes to lend a hand
1. Chapter 1

Hello all and welcome to my latest piece of work. This story has been on the back burner for quite some time and reading the latest evil jade stories and brought it to the front.

As with, I'm assuming, everyone on this site I do not own any characters that we know and love.

Hope you enjoy

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**The Tenth Tribe**

**Chapter: 1**

**Just One of Those Days**

Magic by its very nature is an unknown form of energy that can be controlled as easily as hiding the sun; the further away from the source, the less effort it takes to cover. It is the opposite of science, logical thinking and order; it is chaos at its purest form. Mankind can use chaos to both help and hinder, to build and to destroy; but no matter how you use it, it is still chaos.

One of the biggest problems with dealing with magic is that it is almost impossible to remove it all. There will always be a trace of magic lingering on an object affected by magic; or a person. Just like every damaged limb leaves a twinge, every magical influence leaves a 'gift'.

Jade Chan was once was over energetic but still normal girl; or as normal as a girl can get with parents that are never around because they are too busy working or going to elitist gatherings. Then, because of her school suggesting that Jade be more stimulated at home, and because her parents were too busy to handle the schools request, she met her uncle Jackie Chan. Very quickly after the meeting Jade Chan was still as energetic as ever, but had knowledge of magic and demons. Real live demons and real magic; thanks to this knowledge she could never be normal again.

Throughout her adventures with her uncle she was exposed to magic time and time again, be it through accidental or self inflicted exposure; and this in turn leads us to our story. You see magic has been known to leave parting gifts, for lack of a better term.

Thanks to her direct exposure to the talismans of Shendu, thanks to her short time as T-girl; her speed, strength and endurance have all improved thanks to the rabbit, ox and dog talismans. Due to her time as a half cat creature her grace, agility and stealth have been raised higher than most people would only dream of reaching. Accidentally turning herself into a giant, changed her adult height from the high 4' low 5' mark, as both her parents are around that height; to a much more average, at least in the western world, mid to high 5' range.

These are just some of the things that have happened to Jade Chan on her adventures, but the ones that will make a significant change to her life are of course the darker spells and aspects of magic.

Primarily all her exposure to the Shadowkhan, first becoming the queen of an entire legion of Shadowkhan, and then wearing half a Oni mask has lead to the developments that started an avalanche of events that changed her life beyond her control.

A week had passed since her 12th birthday and her day was not starting out as well as she would have wanted. Granted she's a night person and the only time the day starts as she wants it is when she's allowed to sleep in as late as she wants; but even that never happens thanks to her uncles and Tohru. But even by the normal school day for her today was turning out to be just one of those days.

First she got woken up by her alarm clock, followed by Toru before she finally wakes up enough to get out of bed with help from her uncle Jackie. While she will admit that her alarm clock not waking her is a normal event for her, she dose usually get up by the second wakening, be it Toru or Jackie. To make matters worse she felt small pounding deep within her head; it wasn't really painful, but it was an irritation.

After getting out of bed she finds that there is only a little hot water left allowing her a smaller shower than she would have liked. It also meant that she had to brush her teeth with cold water, and while not a real obstacle, at this point already in the morning she was taking even the smallest discomfort as the end of the world. And it only seemed to get worse.

She may have grown up a bit but she still favoured her traditional tomboy look with semi loose jeans and orange hoodie. It was just her luck that her favourite cloths where still very wet from yesterdays rains. Almost growling in frustration she empties her drawers before finally settling for an all black look.

She got a sliver of a smile when she finds that Toru made her favourite breakfast for her and it was sitting on the table waiting for her. As nice as the different American breakfasts can be, for her there was nothing better than to start the day with a nice hot bowl of congee, she even smiled a little when she saw that she actually had time to enjoy it before her mad dash to school. Shame she didn't have the rabbit talisman on hand.

Throughout her day, the only enjoyable thing was the distant memory of her breakfast. Her lessons seemed more of a bore than she remembered and by the time lunch had rolled around the pounder in her head had replaced his fists with a sledgehammer. To make matters worse her friend Drew had decided to reminisce on past times and started teasing her about her magic ninjas. If it wasn't for her martial arts discipline she would have hit him square in the face minuets ago; as it was her fuse managed to hold out till the bell rang, if only barely.

The remainder of the day went even slower if it was possible and by the time the final bell of the day had rung she had managed to gather both additional homework and a detention thanks to the lack of attention she was giving in class. Her walk home was uneventful, until it started raining when she was half way home. The rain was coming down very hard and very fast. It wasn't producing puddles in the streets but actual rivers in the blink on an eye, and the rain was obstructing her sight badly enough that she had trouble seeing what was happening 100 meters in front of her.

Being closer to home than anywhere else she'd like to be, Jade gathered her wits and bolted in the direction of Uncles Rare Finds, forgoing covering her head with her bag because she was already soaked to the bone and the less time she spent in the rain the better in her eyes. She dodged other people as if they were going in slow motion and she even managed to catch the crossing points while they were flashing and before the motorists had started them up again.

However by the time she got home she could tell she had a fever and her friendly construction worker in her head had found the ignition switch for a jack hammer and was happily working away. She felt terrible and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep for an eternity.

The shop was deserted and she guessed that her uncles and Toru and been called to section 13 or something, and she was about to go upstairs and get some sleep, when the phone rang. Thinking that it was Jackie letting her know where they where she picked it up only to hear that it wasn't anyone she knew, and the man on the other side kept asking her questions about the stock of the shop and the prices that they where, almost like he was looking through a catalogue and not believing the prices for some reason or another.

It took her over 5 minutes of trying politely get him to hand up before her temper got the best of him and she simply hung up. By now she felt her nose beginning to run a little, so she ignored the phone as it tried to get her attention again and simply went up to her room and, after removing everything that was wet, cuddled in between her covers wanting to get some rest.

Though she managed to get to sleep easily enough her dreams were anything but restful. Her dreams contained images of a woman with thick long black hair that reached a little above her thighs. She seemed quite tall with long legs and a slim waist. She was wearing what appeared to be a traditional Hakama outfit. She had black slippers on her feet; the long skirt/trousers were black as well as her top. The ends of the long sleeves as well as the trimming of the trousers and the bottom of the top were red, trying to give some other colour on this otherwise completely black outfit.

While the woman's beauty was something to behold and the outfit quite a focus to Jade, it was what she saw of the person's eyes and skin that drew the most attention.

Her skin, well from what she could see, with so little being displayed was a pale blue, a scarily similar pale blue to the skin of the Shadowkhan. Her eyes were not the traditional red however; they actually looked like eyes, admittedly cat eyes but still, eyes. If there was anything surrounding this person it was covered in an impenetrable darkness, and though Jade could make out all the details of said person as well; she could not make out what it was that this person was trying to say. Her mouth was moving and her eyes seemed to be fixed on Jades, but no sound came out of the woman's mouth.

As strange and draining as this dream was Jade felt like she had to make contact with this person. It wasn't anything that she could confirm, almost intuition that was screaming at her to make contact with this person standing in front of her. So gathering up her courage she started to run towards the woman standing before her. It felt like she was running, it felt like she as running quite fast; but as hard as she tried she never seemed to reach her.

The woman in front of her started to become blurry as Jade tried harder and harder to reach her. And then something unexpected happened. She felt as if someone was trying to push her shoulder out of its socket. The force that was being applied to her shoulder would never manage such a feat, but all the same the sudden application of pressure on her shoulder in a motion similar to that of the water of the sea caused Jade to lose all focus on what she was doing.

Slowly she opened her eyes and found her uncle Jackie shaking her shoulder trying to get her to wake up.

"Jade come on, if you sleep any longer you won't get to sleep at a decent hour tonight" slowly Jade started to sit up in bed until her friendly road constructor decided to start up his equipment again. She slumped back into her pillow and managed a weak "headache" to let her uncle know what was wrong.

Frowning slightly, Jackie felt his nieces head and was surprised to find that it was indeed quite warm. He couldn't remember the last time when Jade was ill, and seeing her like this now was quite worrisome. Accepting the excuse to stay in bed, Jackie informed her that he would bring her up some dinner later and if she was still feeling under the weather then that she would be staying home from school the next day. Sighing with relief Jade snuggled back under the covers and before anyone knew it Jade was back to sleep.

Finding herself floating in darkness, Jade saw that the same woman as before was standing in front of her, but she appeared blurry, like she was seeing her through a mist or something. But she could tell that something had changed. The person standing in front of her was almost screaming at her like its life depended on Jade to reach her.

Stealing herself Jade started to run towards this person that seemed to be both a complete stranger and somewhat familiar.

Meanwhile down stairs Tohru felt a slight tingle go down his spine; like he was feeling a faint piece of dark magic. However when he looked over to his chi magic teacher, he saw that uncle hadn't flinched in the slightest.

This confused Tohru. Even though he had passed his apprenticeship with his master, he was still a novice compared to the wisdom that sat before him reading an ancient tome while taking a sip of tea every so often.

Believing that if his master hadn't picked up on anything then there was nothing to pick up and that he must have imagined it and that he was looking too much into it. This belief made the choice of allowing the thought slip out of his mind as he went back to the text that he was doing research on. How he was going to wish he had chosen to investigate the spike in dark chi rather than rely on his sensei, then things would have turned out very different.

Back in Jades dream land and she was finally making some progress of reaching the woman in front of her. The woman seemed almost distressed with her calling to Jade; because that was exactly what she was doing. Jade was now close enough to hear a soft voice calling to her, telling her to hurry or all would be lost. This just spurred Jade on.

The soft voice Jade was hearing was strange, it sounded soft and almost caring. However, you could hear the faint touch of malice behind the lure. Like a knife being thrown through the air; if you listen closely you could just make out the razor-sharp edge slice through the air before it impacts into you and severs your soul from your body.

Jade didn't care about the malice, a strong part of her reassured her that this person in front of her would not do anything to harm her, and would in fact look out for her and try to make her every wish a reality.

Like a policeman wanting to protect the public. Like a loyal dog looking after his master. Like a faithful employee wanting to do his best for their manager. Like a soldier looking after their country. Like a general protecting her queen.

By the time this thought passed through Jades head, she had already reached out to the woman standing in front of her and their hands touched. Instantly, Jade felt different. She felt as if the locks on a cell door had started to come undone. Like the beginning of a journey; she has taken the first step and found it very rewarding making her want to finish with all due haste.

But even with this surge of emotions she could tell that this path was a one way street and she was now stuck on it with no way off until the next junction. And Jade could not see a sign post telling her when that could be.

The woman standing before Jade smiled down at their joint hands before her

"Finally you have reached me and on the final day as well. The final day before your young body starts the metamorphic process all living things go though and becomes the body of a young lady; the final day where my own magic was able to hide within the sea of your own. Without this meeting I would have been lost to the tides of your chi and we would have never met. My name is Yami and I am the general of the 10th Oni tribe; my queen."

Jade just blinked at this strange woman kneeling before her. What did she mean queen? When had Jade ever wanted to be royalty? She was never the princess, even when she was little. She was always the adventurer. The only time that she could remember calling herself royalty of any sort was when she was being influenced by the Shadowkhan.

Lightning struck her. Oni; wasn't that another name for Shadowkhan? How could she have forgotten something that big? She could remember her time as the queen very vividly and the things she had done still cause her to have nightmares. She told her family that she couldn't remember what happened when she was the queen. But she could.

Oh she could remember exactly what she made some of the Shadowkhan do while she had control over them; just the mere thought sent shivers down her spine. But she couldn't tell what those shivers were supposed to mean. She knew it was suppose to be of disgust, and they were; or at least a part of it was. But she also knew that her shivers from the memories were also more than that. They held excitement. They held fascination. '_God, did they even hold pleasure?_' She couldn't answer herself, and that scared her more than a positive answer.

She wanted, no needed, to talk to this woman, this Shadowkhan more; but she could hear something knocking and notice the world shift a little as she started to gain consciousness. Yami just smiled though, sensing Jades distress.

"Fear not. Now that you have found me, I cannot become lost. Go and join the land of the living; I shall still be here to answer questions, before we start your lessons"

"Lessons?" Jade asked as beams of light started to appear from the blackness. She could now vaguely make out the sound of her door being opened. "Yes Lessons. To teach you on what you are becoming and what it will entail" Yami said as she rose from her knee and gave a final bow before she was lost to the light.

"Oh dear, you fever hasn't improved at all." Jade heard as she opened her eyes. The pressure of her uncle's hand left her forehead not soon after, as she tried to sit up. However she just felt exhausted.

"No, you stay in bed Jade. I'll bring you up some supper, and you won't be going to school tomorrow ether. I don't like how sudden this has come on; if you're not better by lunch time I'm going to take you to the doctors." Jackie confirmed more to himself than anyone, as he quickly left to fetch some food for Jade.

Jade took the sudden quiet as a chance to sort through what she just found out. She was now talking to a new Oni general, and from that could deduce that she was likely to become queen again. What scared her though was the lack of reaction to this revelation. She got a bigger reaction when she heard the rain on her window. What was she suppose think about this? What was she going to do about it as well? Could she hide it from her family; and if so for how long before they discovered? Weeks? Year's maybe?

Should she run away from them, to try and protect them? At least she could answer this one; if she ran, they would hunt with all the resources of section 13 and magic that they could muster. And with her capture cure her again. But could they cure her? Did she even want them too if they could?

Before she could continue with that thought however Jackie came back into her room carrying a bowl.

"Jade when you feel better remember to thank Tohru he made you some more congee. We all know how much you like it and it should be a lot nicer to you than a big heavy meal. He'd have brought it up himself but he is working very hard at the moment" Jackie said as he placed the bowl and a spoon onto her night stand.

What was left unsaid was exactly what Tohru was working on. The family was hiding it in the hope that Jade would not get upset over it; but she already knew. Tohru was in the process of choosing an apprentice; and her name was not on the list.

Apparently to complete his training and become a master he had to take on an apprentice and pass on the knowledge that he had learnt during his time as an apprentice. Once uncle has seen that Tohru can do this sufficiently, then he will become a master.

She found out, quite by accident when she was minding the shop by command from uncle. She was just straightening some stock on the shelves when the phone went off. Picking it up she was surprised to hear a man ask for sensei Tohru.

She felt the tip of a dagger at her heart as she asked the man why he wanted to speak to Tohru. His reply of training in the mystical arts was all that was needed to set off the knife. As plainly as she could she told the man that Tohru was out and to call back tomorrow before putting the phone down.

They had lied to her. She had gotten a promise out of both uncle and Tohru that she would get to be his first apprentice. That she had an incredible gift in magic and that it would be a shame to waste it.

But they also said that it would be many, many years before Tohru would be able to train an apprentice. Likely not until she finished high school. She had gotten the promise out of them that she would be his very first apprentice, but she had to show that she wanted it. She had to improve her grades and not to get into trouble at school.

She had met their demand. Ever since that day, about a year and a half ago, not a single complaint had come to her relatives and her current average grade is at A-. Considering that before she was an average C it's a hudge improvement. Heck the only reason that she is at A- and not a full A was because of one stupid history question; that was so a trick question, no matter what her teachers say.

She had even confirmed with her relatives a year ago if she was proving herself. At the time she was a B student, but Tohru said that she was. That if she stayed above C level she would be his first apprentice.

She didn't cry over it; she wanted to, but the pain of betrayal was too much for her to even cry it out. She wanted to confront them, but she couldn't bring herself to hear the truth from their mouths.

They had lied to her. They promised and then lied to her when she was trying so hard for them. She never forgave them, but kept her studies up; both to hide the fact she knew and to keep her mind away from the hurt.

Remembering this made her loose her appetite. She turned from the dish and brought herself into a meditative state to try and regain control of her emotions.

The only one who had kept a portion of his promise was Jackie. At least he taught her up to an intermediate level of kung fu before he stopped. He had said that she needed to achieve the required discipline before he taught her anymore; and the only way to achieve it was through meditation.

She hated meditation at first, and to a point she still did. But now she knew of the advantages of meditation; how she found it easier to focus both the body and the mind through it. Meditation is one of the big reasons why she is doing so well at school. The mental focus helps her remember things better.

Slipping into the rhythm it did not take her long to clear her mind. She almost lost it just as quickly when she heard a feminine voice speak to her.

"I see you know meditation, my queen. This will quicken your training quite significantly as mastering meditating as much as you have would have been my most time consuming lesion." Yami said from the shadows of Jades mind. Before Jade could complain to her to leave her alone, she actually felt the mental presence of the Shadowkhan general leave. Finally alone Jade continued her exercise in peace.

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Hope you enjoyed the start of my latest project, and bear with me as I get up to scratch writing again. Any feed back at all will be much appreciated and thanks in advance for it.

Until next time!


	2. Chapter 2

Here we are with another chapter. Up faster than I thought I would be able to do, but then again I wanted to address some things that I forgot to mention in chapter 1. This takes place after the series finishes, which as far as I am aware was the fight between Drago and Shendu. If it's not then its set after this event and anything after that doesn't happen.

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**The Tenth Tribe**

**Chapter: 2**

**Poking and Prodding**

With the sun rising into her room Jade woke up feeling as bad as the day before. _'Well at least that part of my dream was true'_ Jade thought as she stumbled towards the bathroom. As she set out on the typical bathroom routine she couldn't help but think about her random flu induced dreams of that woman who said she was once again becoming the Shadowkhan queen; and to a whole new tribe as well.

She was told that she would start to change into a demon and that it would start immediately. Traditionally the change came from the inside out; but if she looked hard enough she would be able to see some changes already. Well she was looking now, but she couldn't see anything.

_'No wait are my eyes a darker shade? No they're redder in colour.'_ Jade thought as she mindlessly started to brush her teeth. _'This is weird, but just because my eyes have slightly changed in colour dose not mean that I am turning into a demon. Dam it why does it feel so strange brushing my teeth this morning; it like my canines are longer or something.' _Sighing in irritation she peered closer at her teeth in the mirror. Her canines where indeed longer, and they looked quite a bit sharper. Felt it too as she ran her tongue over them.

Before she could examine them any further she had a sudden bout of nausea hit her; she only just made it to the toilet before she emptied what little she had in her stomach. After a few minutes past, and a few dry heaves, she felt a little better and was just on the verge of flushing the toilet when a glint of white caught her attention.

Risking a glance she saw two small white objects that she only wanted to see in a mirror. The two white objects were two of her molars that she had just spent time brushing. Dashing to mirror in shock horror she tried to see which ones she had lost.

Sure enough the upper back pair where now missing and two bloody gaps where all that were left; not wanting to believe the mirror Jade moved her finger to touch one of the gaps. It felt horrible, soft and spongy with a little blood around the area to make it that little bit more real. She pressed down harder in disbelief praying to everything and anything that it wasn't true; when she felt something pierce her finger tip.

Quickly pulling out her finger Jade ran it under the tap to remove the blood and saliva. With it clean she looked down at her finger again and noticed it had a small cut that was still bleeding. It wasn't a big cut, nothing more than a paper cut really; but considering the fact it wasn't there before and she had gotten it from her mouth it was a disturbing discovery.

With her fear turning into confusion Jade once again risked looking at the gapes in her mouth and felt around them. Sure enough she noticed something very hard protruding from her gums, it also felt incredibly sharp as she gave herself yet another cut to her finger.

Quickly after this discovery another bout of sickness came and went as well as another two molars, these ones from the lower back of her mouth. She was just getting herself back under control when she heard Jackie on the other side of the door of the bathroom.

He told her that he had phoned the school to let them know she was not coming in and had a doctor's appointment for her at half past 1 in the afternoon. She acknowledged him as she once again brushed her teeth to remove the taste of sick from her mouth.

While she was doing this she pondered why she was so sick, it couldn't just be because of her illness. It seemed someone was listening into her thoughts because she got an answer.

_"Your sickness is due to the food you ate last night. It was laced with good chi magic in the hope of making you better faster I would imagine, my queen. The reason of your sickness is because your chi is changing to match your new demon hood" Yami said to Jade within her head as Jade finished up in the bathroom before crawling back to bed._

_"Do not worry about the chi in your food I shall teach you to dispel such weak chi magic during your next meal."_

"But what about my teeth I can't lose all of them or people will notice and how long will they take to grow back in?"

_"Your teeth falling out represents how quickly you chi is adapting to your new status. The more chi you have the faster your new teeth will grow in. I expect that the four you have lost already will be back by tonight. For now do not worry about them and focus on the lesions I gave you last night."_ This made Jade smile. The lesions that she had received last night were on what she was becoming and the abilities she was going to receive along with it. She had a small smile on her face; she was going to learn magic. Actual magic, not just the potions that she could sneakily make whenever she was alone; but incantations stances and whatever else you do in order to use magic. Hopefully she wouldn't need use a dried blow fish or newt; but if that was the only way then so be it!

The morning past in discomfort for Jade; she could feel her back teeth, her molars slowly beginning to loosen while her canines and front incisors seemed to become sharper and, if anything, more rooted to her mouth. While she didn't notice any other changes whenever she looked in a mirror, she could almost feel herself slowly changing.

Her hearing was sharpening up as well as her eyes; the eyes were also becoming practically bothered by exceptionally bright lights as well. She knew there were bigger changes happening inside of her but she was unable to tell what they were.

At lunch time Jackie brought her a bowl of soup and a sandwich. He checked her forehead again and was disappointed to find she still had quite a bad fever; he was called away however thanks to uncle demanding his attention and so he did not notice when Jade started to chant lightly over her food.

Jade was relieved to find she could keep her food down this time but found it incredibly difficult to chew with her teeth; they felt like they were going to fall out at any moment. But she persevered and felt a lot better with a full stomach, though it was short lived as she felt another gap in her teeth but no tooth anywhere to be seen.

Realisation dawned on her as she had a mental flash of the rooster talisman appear before her. She felt ill all over again but kept it in wanting the full stomach over a toothless one.

She couldn't dwell on it longer because her uncle Jackie came back in to gather her plates and to tell her that they would be leaving to the doctors soon so she better change.

She did notice him smile at the empty plates in front of him before he left and this made her heckles rise. He knew! He knew that magic was being put into her food and he wasn't questioning it. What a hypocrite! Whenever she was sick before and wanted to use the horse talisman it was all "Jade we don't want to get to reliant on magic, it'll weaken our resolve and make us vulnerable" but now that uncle or Tohru are doing it it's all "whatever gets her better the fastest is ok with me!" _'HA! Well sorry but I won't be eating any more of your magic tainted food ever again!'_

Unfortunately once this train got going there was no stopping it. She vaguely remembered a flavour from her dinner that wasn't supposed to be there. A taste her body now knew to be the taste of magic; and now she was remembering other times that she had noticed the strange taste.

_'No they would have told me if they were doing something like that. But no one has mentioned the magic that is in my food right now, and who's to say that the magic that's in it is even there to make me feel better; what if they're trying to suppress my magic!_

_'Maybe that's why they won't let me be Tohru's apprentice. Maybe there too scared of my potential as a magic user and want to suppress my magic!_

_'No be reasonable Jade. Your family would not be like that they love you! But then why won't they make me Tohru's apprentice? Maybe I can ask Jackie about it when we go to the doctors. But then he would know that I know and would ask too many awkward questions. Aurgh I just don't know what to do'_ by now Jade was pulling on her hair in frustration, just what was she going to do.

The trip to the doctors and the doctor himself were quiet and uneventful. The doctor was pretty sure Jade just had a case of the flu and she should be right as rain in a couple of days. He did mention that she shouldn't go to school for the rest of the week and plenty of bed rest.

It was the trip back from the doctors that Jackie voiced some concerns at how quiet she was being, even for one not feeling well.

"I'm fine really." Receiving only a raised eyebrow from her uncle as an answer to that made Jade sigh. "Ok I've had quite a lot on my mind recently. I was wondering if Tohru really wants me to be his apprentice."

"Of course he dose Jade but you know how uncle can be. He won't let Tohru have an apprentice until he says so; apparently Tohru still has a very long way to go" was Jackie's answer. Jade noticed that he had never once looked in her direction. Sure they were driving, but not even one attempt to look her in the eyes? She really didn't like what she was seeing.

"I know uncles like that, but it's still not fair. I mean it feels like your all cheating me out. Here I am keeping my end of the promise by working my butt of in school, getting above 90 percent in all my studies but you guys aren't giving me any form of reward. You say I've come a long way in my meditation but not enough for you to start up my training in kung fu again.

"I know I can still be impatient but you would tell me when I'm ready wouldn't you? You'll tell me when I can do magic or start my kung fu training again, wouldn't you. You'd tell me if you were going to do anything to me, to make me feel better wouldn't you?

_Sniff._ "Sorry I just had a dream about my parents last night that brought up a lot of early childhood fears" Jade finished in a quiet voice. She knew the last part was a lie, well the dream part of it anyway, but she wanted to avoid questions and this would solve that problem.

By this point they had arrived back at the shop and Jackie had turned off the engine. He even had an arm over her shoulders.

"Of course I would Jade. You're my niece and I love you. I'm sorry you feel that way about our agreement, but I'm afraid it is true. Both you and Tohru are just not ready yet for the next level. Come on cheer up, if you feel better by the weekend I might be able to take you to moose world as long as things stay as quiet as they are now" Jackie emphasised this with a squeeze of her shoulder before getting out of the car.

Jade was a little slower getting out; she had a lot on her mind.

He had lied to her. Outright ignored questions, avoided reasons and lied to her. She felt depressed and alone at this revelation, until she felt a mental hand rest on her shoulder. Yami had apparently been there for the discussion and was now trying to comfort her.

Her questions from earlier in the day where swimming through her head as she tried to calm herself down.

She'd give them one more chance; tonight when her food arrives. If she senses any magic in it and they don't mention anything, then she knew she was on her own.

_'Not completely alone. I still have Yami by my side.'_ Jade thought as she got back into bed; going to the doctors was surprisingly draining.

Down stairs Jackie sighed as he worked on evaluating the new stock that uncle received for his shop; being an archaeologist had some other uses than hunting for buried treasure it seemed.

Jade knew they were hiding something from her, he wondered how long she had known they were hiding something from her. But she's acted exactly as they thought she would with the temptation of training in magic and kung fu; she had surpassed in fact. Never did he once think that Jade was an A grade student; a high C low B student sure, but never an A.

"Maybe we should tell her what's going on" unfortunately that train of thought was interrupted by two fingers striking him on the forehead.

"We can be doing no such thing. The dark chi that resides within her is still a threat to her. Uncle was able to suppress it with magic but was not able to exorcise it from her.

"Research on subject has confirmed to uncle that once Jade's menstruate cycle starts, then body will purge dark magic itself. Until that time she must eat suppression magic and be exposed to as little magic as possible.

"If Jade is told beforehand it is likely that she will look for dark magic within her. No thanks to you in teaching Jade meditation without uncle's permission! Uncle has seen her discipline when meditating; it is very strong. Uncle believes she can reach the plain of her chi now.

"If we tell her of dark magic there, she will no doubt search for it and try to remove it; thus giving way out for the shadows and Jade will once again turn dark. No, we stick to uncle's plan!"

"But Uncle, she knows we're hiding something! I don't know how much she knows, but it's enough to get her suspicious and you know what she's like when that happens. If it wasn't for her getting the flu I bet she would be crawling over the walls looking for information."

"Then the fates are smiling upon us. As Uncle said we only need to wait until metaphors, once her first one has past her body will fight dark chi for us; then Jade can continue being taught kung fu. Uncle is sad that it comes too late for her to be Tohru's first apprentice, and uncle himself is too old to care for an apprentice so young and adept at magic; is why I choose Tohru over Jade for my apprentice. Besides could be for the best; with two chi masters watching her she could surpass both of us." Uncle said trying to lighten the mood.

Jackie just sighed again, knowing that uncle was right. Picking up the item he dropped he started evaluating it again while uncle left the room.

A few hours later, and a few sales to make uncle very happy, it was time for Jackie to take Jade her dinner.

He was still torn between telling her what was going on and following Uncle's plan. In the end he realised that she was 12 now and that she must be about to enter puberty soon which also meant her metaphors. She could wait another couple of weeks for the answer, couldn't she? Especially if he distracts her with moose world and other such activities. Smiling with a plan made up Jackie knocked on her door before entering.

Jade could sense the magic as soon as she was woken up by Jackie knocking on her door. _'So this was it.'_ Jade thought as she sat up in bed and got herself comfortable. Seeing it was her Uncle Jackie's meatloaf brought a bit of a smile, but also a frown.

It meant that Tohru wasn't here; he always made her food when she was ill no matter how busy he was. He said that it made him feel good to be able to make his niece in all but blood feel better without the use of magic; it made his betrayal all the more painful.

After receiving the meal and noticed that Jackie wasn't going to leave in a hurry, Jade did something a little out of character; she asked Jackie for some tea.

Blinking at the unusual request Jade just came up with an excuse of feeling a little cold and wanting a hot drink and she didn't want a cocoa. Accepting the excuse Jackie stood saying he would be back in a minute.

He was too; he was back quickly with a small pot and two cups of tea. Fortunately he was still gone long enough for Jade to dispel the magic on her food.

During her meal Jackie checked her temperature and frowned slightly at how little it had changed since this morning. They made light conversation while she ate, just pieces of topics really, though both of them were surprised to discover how much Jade liked the tea.

By the time she had eaten her full Jade had tried no less than 4 subtle enquiries to find out what was going on, but each time it ended in failure. Not once did Jackie ever even hint that there was something going on.

The mood changed quickly after that but Jackie just chalked it up to tiredness thanks to the food and the flu. He gathered the empty plates and bid Jade a good night as he left the room.

Jade got comfortable under her covers but knew she wasn't going to get much rest now. Closing her eyes she centred herself before entering a half sleep half meditative state.

She found Yami surrounded in her familiar darkness that was also becoming quite inviting to Jade as well. She was sitting in the lotus position and had her eyes closed. They snapped open however when Jade got closer the demon general.

"How can I help you my queen?" Yami said as she uncurled herself from her position on what would be the floor and rose to her feet.

"I want you to train me in everything you can, as fast as you can. I want to beat them; I want to show them that they can't dictate my life for me; that I don't get a say in what I want to do with myself. I want you to train me in magic as well as Shadowkhan lore. I'm going to show them that they should not underestimate me" Jade said with a hard glint in her eyes; she had just chosen her destiny now all that was left was to see the world's destiny unfold.

* * *

Another chapter done and once again I hope you have enjoyed. Reviews are always welcome and thanks in advance for them. I am getting back into writing slowly and my other stories will be updated as soon as I feel comfortable writing again and have sufficient ideas to get them moving. Until then I ask you for patience, thank you.


	3. Chapter 3

Another chapter for you all too sink your teeth into. This was a little later than I planned, and truthfully the next one might also be a little late; entering the final stretch of the university year, so that means projects and exams. Yay for me. But anyway I hope you enjoy.

* * *

**The Tenth Tribe**

**Chapter: 3**

**The Opening Gambit  
**

Three days have passed since her decision to follow her generals teachings, and though she was bed ridden with the flu for all this time she was still learning to use her abilities through the act of meditation; it also help her conceal her studies from her so called family as doing magic within yourself was surprisingly hard to detect.

She had learnt how to conceal herself in the shadows and was well on her way to understanding the process of shadow travel. She was disappointed to learn that Yami was not efficient enough in magic for Jade to learn anything of note worthy, but the few things she was taught, like the ability to dispel minor magic, had already proven its worth.

Every one of her meals had the same signature of magic covering them. Jade had worked out that it was not actually healing magic; but a type of suppression magic. Strong enough to suppress a portion of one's magic, but weak enough that even a skilled magic user would not notice. If it wasn't for her being ill whenever she ate it, she would have never known it was there.

Her outer appearance hadn't changed all that much; her skin was a lighter shade but that was accepted as not being out in the sun, or what little sun there was with all the rain they were having recently. Her finger nails, though you couldn't tell just by looking at them, where significantly harder than they were before; they were also starting to form a point and become more claw like.

She was surprised to find that her hair was growing as well. Before the back of her hair was short, not even touching her shoulders, but it is now. It was long enough to lightly cover her shoulders and seemed to be thicker than before as well. It was strange having longer hair but a part of her almost wished for it; so for the first time in a very long time, jade decided to delve into a little femininity and have long hair. With her mind made up; her hair, if anything, started to grow even faster than it had been before.

These changes were all relatively easy to hide; her hair being the hardest to conceal, but you can't tell its length if it is always messy and bedridden. But the most significant change and the hardest one to conceal were her teeth.

All her back teeth had now been replaced with the ridiculously sharp demon teeth she had before. Her canines looked like they should be on a large wolf or something; they were over 2 inches in length and the thickest of all her teeth. The point on the end of them was not quite as sharp as her other teeth; but then again it's like comparing a tiger to a lion. One of them is slightly more deadly than the other but you wouldn't want to find yourself in front of ether of them when they're hungry would you?

Her front incisors mostly still looked human, but they were beginning to form a point on their tips and it wouldn't take long, maybe a day or two at most, before they looked like the rest of her teeth in her mouth.

She was glad that her skin had hardened or else she would have bitten holes through her cheeks with such sharp teeth.

Her eyes were now becoming quite sensitive to bright lights. She struggled to keep them from squinting whenever Jackie came up and opened her curtains. In fact out of all her changes it was this one that had gotten her the closest to being discovered. If it hadn't been for the sudden emergency call from section 13 Jackie would have probably found out about her changes.

Fortunately Yami had another spell, the only other one of real use, which reduced the light within an area. Though reducing the light in her room was a dead giveaway of her new condition, jade was cunning enough to cover only the area directly in front of her eyes. This dulled her eyes slightly but since the iris of her eyes where becoming redder and redder every day, this way it gave her more time before her eyes gave her away.

The problem was that though her training was extensive in the Shadowkhan natural abilities, it was almost useless in others and jade was getting restless. She wanted to learn magic! Almost needed to learn magic the way she squirmed whenever she thought about it.

It wasn't fair! She was giving up her humanity to show just what she was capable of, but there were still road blocks in her path. Well she has had enough! If she was the future queen of the Shadowkhan then she would be damned if she was going to only rely on them. She has faced countless entities that relied on one strength or another; well she wasn't going to be that weak. She was going to learn from her mistakes! She wasn't going to keep to what she was good at. She was going to branch out and that meant getting her hands on some magic texts that she could use.

Her uncle's books were useless to her; if she couldn't stomach weak good magic, how was she going to be able to cast stronger spells of the same stuff. No she needed her own and she had just heard of the place to start.

Apparently a local museum had an exhibit of mystical objects from Japan, and within the collection was a set of shadow artefacts, including scrolls, chests, talismans and even carved idols.

Jade knew that 95 percent of all of it was rubbish; but the scrolls would be useful and the chest had apparently never been opened and if Jade liked anything, it was a challenge and a mystery, in that order.

She had over heard her family talking about the artefacts when they were sitting down to dinner. She had received her own earlier and was now spying on them from the landing; thanks to her enhanced hearing she could hear everything that was being said, even the quiet or whispered parts.

They were talking about the artefacts and what ones to cover in protection chi over them in case a new evil rises up to gather them. Jade just rolled her eyes at the paranoia being displayed by her relatives; always thinking about the next great evil that's going to enslave the world.

Well she wasn't evil, she just wanted to learn magic and it took this much determination to do so; since her family weren't going to help her achieve her full potential. Sure they said they would teach her magic and help her reach her peak but then again their word has meant less and less over the past few days and then she finds out that they are trying to suppress her potential through sneaky magic placed in her food.

No if she was going to learn magic then she was going to have to learn it herself. Like the classic saying "if you want something done right do it yourself" Well she wanted the something to actually get started, let alone get done correctly.

She planned to spring the items that very night, a full day before her uncle's were suppose to set up their magic. Unfortunately Yami forgot to teach Jade how to summon her Shadowkhan or her own general onto the living plain. Apparently the "darkness within" only works on people being influenced by Oni magic; for demons it was something else entirely and by the time she had managed to summon Yami out of the world of shadows Jade was too exhausted to proceed with the mission. Even with Yami's praise of mastering it so soon after learning it, something that not even the king of Oni managed, Jade still felt miffed and blamed her flu on her tiredness.

It seemed her flu was at least partly to blame because throughout the day she seemed to relapse back a bit. It made her decide to stay back from the action, no matter how she wanted to be there to watch her family fail without her. But then again this way she was still acting within the shadows (pun totally intended); they wouldn't know who they were fighting.

They would act like they always do to new threats and jade knew that script better than the back of her hand. Yami would quite literally run circles round her family with the knowledge she could pass on; and her family wouldn't know how to react to a threat that they knew nothing about, but knew them better than they know themselves.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear her uncle Jackie comes into her room. She jumped when he asked her how she was feeling and only just managed to catch herself from lashing out at him 'mental note to self, be more aware of your surroundings or you're going to hurt someone.'

"Jade you're burning up again. Have you been sneaking out? Sigh I was hoping you were well enough come visit the museum tonight with us but not now; I don't know if we will be able to get someone to watch you while we're out on such short notice."

"Jackie I'm 12 years old I can look after myself for a couple of hours while you go to the private viewing Tohru managed to get you. I've got my cell phone with me in case I start feeling even worse. You've been doing so much with looking after me, keeping uncle happy as well as your job as well. You need some time to be yourself and you know how much you love looking at strange and unusual items. It's why you became an archaeologist, isn't it?"

Jackie sighed, jade was right he loved looking at strange artefacts and these pieces from Japan were apparently something to behold. Jackie had decided to tell jade only a half truth about their excursion to the museum; they were going to look at the artefacts but also to set powerful protection magic to keep the artefacts safe. He knew that if he told jade the true purpose of their visit she would follow them even if she was on deaths door.

"Are you sure jade? Maybe we could get an agent from section 13 to watch you; damn it they're having that personnel review this week. Maybe..." He never got the chance to finish that thought as uncle yelled for him to hurry up. "Sigh ok jade if you think you'll survive on your own for a couple of hours then I'll go. But I am going to call hourly to make sure you're ok. Hopefully we won't be gone more than 3 hours but I'll try and keep you up to date as much as possible ok?"

"Ok Jackie but don't worry about me. More than likely I'll be asleep any way whenever you call" jade reassured her uncle with a hug before climbing into bed. Jackie smiled at her before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

She waited a good 5 minutes after her she heard the door to the shop close before she let out a sigh of relief. Not having anyone look after her was a huge advantage to her plans. Getting into the lotus position on her bed jade concentrated on summoning of her general.

It was still exhausting and jade hoped it would get easier; but when she realised that she had basically just summoned a demon she couldn't complain.

"My queen I sense that we are alone in the building. I take it that your family has left to the exhibit already. Perhaps we should push forward our plan?"

"Knowing my family as well I do we cannot just go in now and take what we want; without direction they will become unpredictable and we lose the biggest advantage we have, my insight.

"But then again I do want to make sure I get something from this excursion. Yes why not, we'll try and make them think that there are two groups after these artefacts possibly make the museum believe that it is someone from their private tour group.

"Well whatever we decide to do I want to see the army you wield; let me see the Shadowkhan under your command and tell me what their special ability is that separated them from the other Shadowkhan."

Yami bowed her head at the request and before jade could say anything else she felt the presence of a Shadowkhan in her room. A pool of shadow separated from her shadow before it stretched up to form a body.

The first thing that jade noticed that honestly surprised her, was the Shadowkhan appeared female; the Shadowkhan was wearing a black formal kimono with white flower patterns spread over it. It had black hair and it was tied back once on the top and again on either side of its face, framing its face almost like a dome.

Its face was being covered by a black fan it held in its hand; something told jade that the fan was more than just an accessories. But jade could see its face was white rather than the standard skin colour of Shadowkhan; jade couldn't tell if the face had face paint on or not, because she couldn't see any skin at all, even the hand that held its fan was still being covered by its kimono. Its eyes were a piercing purple colour that seemed to be almost hypnotising, and with its long eyelashes it certainly was very alluring.

With just a slight gesture from jade, the Shadowkhan removed the fan that covered the majority of its face revealing the rest of its white face, but more interestingly a pair of very rich red lips.

At first jade thought that the Shadowkhan was surprisingly tall, even taller than Yami; however upon closer inspection she noticed that its footwear had to be at least 10cm tall, maybe even 15cm.

This Shadowkhan was clearly more human than even the Shinobi tribe but they also appeared to be at a great disadvantage when it comes to fighting. Almost sensing what jade was thinking, the Shadowkhan launch itself at jade with speed that jade had never seen. Its fan stopped just at her neck and if it wasn't for her skin toughening jade was sure she would have been lightly bleeding.

Yami just smiled "by the looks of it you underestimated my Shadowkhan. Though they look weak they are more than capable of fighting" as if to prove her point the Shadowkhan tore off the lower part of its kimono to reveal a similar, if tighter, black version of the trousers/skirt from the Hakama; greatly improving its mobility.

"Their ability is not actual combat but being the greatest of infiltrators and assassins. Their ability is actually morphing their form to better conceal themselves within the environment they find themselves in" to demonstrate this the khan morphed its hair, face, clothes and body build to make herself a shadow image of jade. Its eyes never changed and the white makeup melded with its red lipstick to produce a pale almost passable skin colour; close enough for people who didn't know jade to be fooled.

Seeing this brought a big smile to jades face; this would prove to be perfect for the plan that she was forming right at this moment

"Can you summon your Shadowkhan in other outfits and shapes" after a confirmation of yes the smile on jades face grew even bigger "perfect. Right I need two Shadowkhan right now, one to watch and then separate my uncle Jackie from the tour group, for maybe 5 minutes or so. The second one will wait within the shadows for a sign to tell her that Jackie has been separated and then she'll steal the object that Jackie spends the most time looking at disguised as him. Of course this needs to happen sneakily and happen very soon.

"You Yami will wait another hour or so, not exactly to throw suspicion, and try and steal the scrolls and the chest preferably when their close by but not necessarily in the room. If you summon your Shadowkhan I want them to look more like you, and remove the makeup, they don't need to know about their abilities yet. Lead them to believe that your independent and this is your first attempt at the items; be surprised and possibly annoyed that someone else is after the artefacts.

"The first two Shadowkhan should leave now and come straight back when they succeed" Yami bowed her head at the command and dispersed into the shadows. Jade just smiled; this was working out to be easier than she ever thought it could get.

Jackie was actually having an enjoyable time at the exhibit; the artefacts were beautiful and appeared to be in amazing hands. Tohru translated some of the tapestries for him and the stories they held were inspiring; that each piece of the story was so delicately woven into the fabric as it was being made showed the dedication that the people had to their history.

Jade was right, he needed a night off from his stressful week and this was doing him a world of good. He had just gotten off the phone with jade, and though she said she was fine, he could tell that her condition was deteriorating a little. Not enough to make him really concerned, jade was a smart girl and he did trust her to look after herself, but he knew that she might have to go back to the doctors tomorrow.

True they were here to set up additional protection on the artefacts but they were being delayed from doing that; one there were other people at this private showing that they didn't count on and two, all of them were enjoying themselves. Even uncle was fascinated with the antiques; though Jackie guessed it might be due to retail value on such objects than their history, but he could be wrong.

Fortunately the museums head curator accepted their request for more time with the artefacts so that Tohru could translate them. It surprised Jackie to find out that was the reason why their family got invited to see the exhibit: apparently Tohru was starting to make a name for himself as an ancient language expert, with ancient Japanese as his mastery.

Currently the group were on the other side of the room looking at ancient pieces of armour said to repel the shadows when worn; nether uncle or Tohru believed the armour had any magical properties at all and found this hard to believe. He was still looking at an ancient chest; it was made of a very hard redwood and the metal joints and bolts were black with age. It was no bigger than a large overnight bag and there were no real carvings worth mentioning on it; but it drew his attention.

The locks on the chest were rusted shut and the wood looked like it would splinter into pieces if any real force was applied. He was drawn to it because it was closed and hadn't been opened ever since it had been found.

People have looked inside, thanks to x-rays and sonic scans; but what they found was just pieces of ash. Some pieces were big enough to show that they were once books or scrolls but the majority was lost wisdom. The people who scanned the box said it was more valuable as it was than the risk of damage to get to the crumbled pieces of paper that were inside. Hence why it was never opened and why it was such a fascination to him; he always loved a good mystery.

Getting up from his knees Jackie noticed a girl crying in a corner. He wondered how the people in the room had missed her; heck he wondered how he had missed her before just now.

Walking over to her Jackie crouched down to her level and offered a handkerchief to dry her eyes. The child was small, maybe only 7 or 8. She had a pale face and long black hair and was wearing a simple black jumper and pants. Jackie thought it a little strange that she was wearing black instead of bright colours as most girls her age liked to wear; but dismissed it as each to their own.

The little girl accepted the offered handkerchief before she looked at him and gave Jackie a small tearful smile in thanks. The colour of her eyes was very unusual; they were purple in colour. Jackie had never heard of eyes being that colour; but then again he wasn't a doctor and it could just be extremely rare. After all if you can get two different eye colours, something he had heard of, why couldn't you get purple?

"There now little one it's ok; let's go find your parents. Now I don't think I saw you come in with the group" her shaking her head confirmed it to him "so let's take you to the security office to see if they are looking for you" Jackie said with a smile and offering his hand. The young girl smiled a little more and took his hand with her pale one. Smiling back Jackie led her out of the room and towards the security desk.

Tohru felt another shiver run down his spine. This one was defiantly not his imagination; it was powerful, like the evil was coming from inside the room. But looking around he couldn't see anything amiss at all; what made it worse was that uncle still hadn't looked up from the vases on display.

He noticed Jackie leave the room, probably to go to the bathroom or something. Tohru felt sorry for Jackie, it had been such a stressful week for him; he was juggling his museum work, helping out at uncles shop, doing part time work within section 13 and then on top of all that jade manages to catch the flu.

Tohru would be the first one to admit that he was wasn't pulling his weight right now, but he was having such a hard time at the moment as well. He was in the final stages of choosing his apprentice, something that has taken the better part of half a year to do. Not because there were too many, but because giving someone such knowledge could be disastrous; that and the choice of applicants was more of a go out and find one. He couldn't put a want ad in the paper, he had to go to the applicants and that took time.

He sighed again, he was quite content to wait another couple of years to get an apprentice, but uncle said that it was time and if he waited he would never be a master. It was the way uncle trained to become a master and apparently if you waited too long the development of your chi would be stunted and you could never reach the level of master. At least that was what uncle said anyway.

His mood changed very quickly as another strong shiver went down his spine 'the willies' quickly looking around he was surprised to find nothing out of the ordinary; uncle still looking at priceless vases the others people in the tour group doing their own thing nothing of any meaning or hostility.

Tohru was really getting worked up now; twice in such a short time was very nerving. He wondered over to his master and told him of his feelings.

"Meh, uncle is not feeling the willies you must be imagining it."

"But sense you yourself have been talking about a new evil on the horizon. Maybe it is Daolon Wong, perhaps he has managed to both restore his powers and block you from sensing them. He would not know of me completing my apprentice and so wouldn't think to hide himself from me."

"It is not Daolon Wong, sigh, but maybe you are right. Uncle has not been quiet to the forces of evil; it would be possible for them to mask themselves from me if they were able to get uncles chi signature. Come let's get Jackie and start working on the protection spells for the artefacts"

"He just went to the bathroom sensei, but hopefully he won't be long" Tohru replied as he began to walk beside uncle over to the curator of the museum.

It was small, more like a flicker than actual movement but it was enough to gain uncles attention. Looking over he let out an all mighty "AIYA" as he saw a thief clad in black retrieving the mysterious chest from a hole in the glass cabinet.

Everyone froze, even the thief, as they all stared at one another. The standoff was like something from an old western, everyone was waiting for the other to make a move; too stunned to actually do it themselves.

In the end it was the thief who looked away first as he lifted the chest onto his shoulder and dashed out of the door. Very Quickly. After that phones started to ring and people started to yell/shriek while Tohru and uncle dashed after the criminal.

Jackie smiled a little to himself, it was a little strange but it also made sense the situation he now found himself in. Not soon after getting out of the hall than the little girl began to fidget; she seemed to almost hop between her two feet and started to look frantically around the place.

The idea came from somewhere within Jackie's memory, perhaps a distant memory from when he was small, but Jackie quickly understood.

"You need the bathroom don't you" a frantic nod of the head was his only answer. Jackie just smiled and detoured from his path to the nearest girl's toilet.

That was coming on ten minutes ago. The little girl was taking a bit of time, but then again maybe she wanted to wash her tears? Or perhaps she needed more than she let on. Not wanting to make the little girl any more upset, Jackie was happy to wait a little longer.

It was the sound of distant running that got Jackie's attention. Looking down the hall he saw his uncle coming from where he heard the running closely followed by Tohru.

"Jackie, what are you doing standing around doing nothiiinng? We saw the thief run this way and you let him pass with such a priceless artefact" by this point in his rant uncle was close enough to lash out at his nephew with the traditional two finger slap to the forehead.

Just before anyone could say anything else the security guards and the curator of the museum surrounded them. Just as they were about to be taken to a more secure area Jackie remembered the little girl and asked to fetch her; so being escorted into the girls toilets Jackie was surprised to find them deserted.

Back with jade and she was currently very pleased with herself. She had discovered, by herself, that she could control the actions of the Shadowkhan. Not give them commands, something she knew she could do, but actually move them about as if they where an extension to herself.

At the moment she could only do one at a time and had to focus on nothing else but given practice she felt she could command whole armies like that.

She looked over to where the two Shadowkhan kneeled, one small and looked like a little girl the other bigger and looked remarkably like Jackie would if he was wearing the standard uniform for the Shadowkhan; the mysterious chest in front of them positioned just beside her bed where she currently lay.

"I should have known that Jackie would be interested in the chest. He was always fond of a mystery and a box that has never been opened would certainly count as that. Well at least there is one less thing on the shopping list now." Jade wasn't able to say anything else as a coughing fit reared its ugly head.

"My queen maybe it would be best for you to call it a night. Your illness appears to be getting worse and your transformation is certainly not helping" Yami worriedly asked as she retrieved some cough medicine from a Shadowkhan.

"No I'll be ok, we just need to insert nasty coughing fit here oogh maybe your right; the cough medicine seems to be doing nothing and my head is getting worse. Ok Yami I leave you in charge; I trust you to know the target is anything that you think will be of use. But make sure that my family doesn't know about me being your queen; oh and don't forget that you're not aware of the chest being stolen."

"As you wish my queen I shall not forget what you ask. I shall leave you with a Shadowkhan so she can retrieve anything you need." And with that Yami bowed once more before going over to the wall and simply walked through the shadow that appeared on it; all but one of the remaining Shadowkhan threw down smoke balls and disappeared as well.

Jade didn't acknowledge the Shadowkhan however, she was just too tired to do anything else except get comfortable in between the covers and fall asleep. Seeing this, the guard Shadowkhan faded into the shadows taking the stolen chest with it. The room looked exactly as Jackie had last seen it, except for a sleeping jade and a very small purple glow that appeared from the shadows of her desk every so often.

* * *

I hope the Shadowkhan are to your liking. Got a little inspired by Shogun Total War with them. Just a quick note to anyone who is wondering about my other stories that haven't been updated in quite some time; they are not dead! I am going to write chapters for them and get them finished. Current estimate for when I start them up is some time in the summer. If I haven't given you a chapter by then, then nag me about it. Hopefully that won't happen. Until next time!


	4. Chapter 4

Here we are with yet another chapter for you all to sink your teeth into. I still haven't heard back about my bid on getting the rights to Jackie Chan Adventures, but something tells me they're probably worth more than a pound. So for the sake of argument I don't own it; only the ideas of what I would do if I did.

* * *

**The Tenth Tribe**

**Chapter: 4**

**The New Evil?**

For over an hour Jackie and co were interrogated by both the security and the curator. It wasn't until Jackie was able to get into contact with Capitan black before they were finally believed; though Jackie could see where the curator was coming from, the person they saw in the security footage had a worryingly similar build to his. In fact if the talismans were still around he would have had a look to see if the tiger talisman was still in the vault.

It seemed that the curator wanted them out as soon as possible and that was fine with Jackie. He had just phone jade and it sounded like he had woke her up and while he expected as much it worried him how rough she was sounding.

Arriving back into the room that held all of the Japanese artefacts; with only himself, uncle, Tohru and the courier of the museum in the room, it felt almost spooky. It seemed like the shadows were watching the group as they entered and it sent chills down everyone's spines.

"Well get your extra security measures done so you can leave and I can get to locating that stolen chest."

"We shouldn't be too much longer with the artefacts and thank you for your time" Tohru said trying to appease the curator, he just snorted at the remark before heading towards the exit.

"Now that he is gone we can start what we came he to do. Jackie pour some of this potion over each of the displays, then make sure we are not disturbed while Tohru and I are chanting the protection magic; after we are finished chanting the first section you will need to pour on this potion, finally after we complete the final chant you are to seal them with this final potion" Uncle explained as he handed three potions over to Jackie. The first potion was a sickly green colour that appeared to be very lumpy, the second was a royal blue in colour; it looked thick and seemed to stick to the sides of the vial. The final one was a vibrant red; it was very runny and was staining the glass with its colour. Jackie nodded his head in understanding they all got to work on their parts of the ritual.

The chanting was long, repetitive, monotone and very boring to watch as uncle and Tohru just sat as close to the centre of the room as possible; its times like this that Jackie wondered why jade was so fixated in learning magic, it just seemed so unlike anything the girl would be interested in.

The two chi wizards where just finishing with their chanting and appeared quite drained; Jackie was torn between helping them and finishing the ritual with the final potion. He didn't get to decide the matter as the vial broke in his hand.

Tohru had never done such a powerful protection spell before; uncle must really want to look after these artefacts. Looking over to his teacher Tohru was surprised to see that uncle looked to be faring a little better than he felt; he was still tired and winded, but not as bad as Tohru felt he was.

His musings were put to a halt when he felt a strong shiver go down his spine quickly followed by the sound of glass braking nearby. Both he and uncle scrambled to their feet as they looked around trying to locate what had broken; finally seeing a puddle of red liquid on the floor and Jackie standing above it looking at something in his hands.

"JACKIEEE! Uncle told you to be careful with potions! Each one is vital to the ritual and it cannot be completed without every piece in its place!"

"It wasn't my fault uncle; the vile broke in my hand. I think this metal needle caused it to shatter"

"You are careless and want to blame your mistake on cleaners not doing their job correctly. You are just fortunate that uncle brought more potions with him"

"You do know that your nephew is correct old man; the pin did cause your vile to break. I should know, after all, since I was the one who threw it." The voice was feminine and seemed to come from all around them; the voice, as alluring as it sounded, was laced with a vicious edge. You could hear that whoever the voice belonged to enjoyed being bad a little too much to be sane. Movement was seen at the main door but when they faced it no one was there.

"Show yourself!" Uncle threatened as he waved his puffer fish about. His statement only caused the voice to laugh.

"But it is fun watching you all squirm within my net. The spider attacks swiftly and efficiently, once its prey has tired from struggling to escape its web; why should I be so different?"

Tohru took this turn to speak to the faceless voice, his lizard poised and ready to shoot at the slightest glimpse of movement. "Because we are not in your trap"

"Oh but you are, you really are. While you were performing your good magic you failed to notice the noose around your neck. Now my warriors have surrounded you and are just waiting for the signal. Oh and speaking of good magic" the way the voice mentioned good magic had the two wizards tense up and aim their casters; only for them to be shot out of their hands and embedded into the floor by two more of those metal needles.

"Without those you can't perform good magic can you?"

"Reveal yourself to uncle so he can teach you a lesson!" Uncle shouted in frustration and annoyance. Apparently the games were over.

The voice didn't say anything but the shadows around them appeared to get even thicker; then from the doorway stood a figure. It was feminine in appearance with very long hair and wore something that looked to belong to a samurai, when not wearing any armour. As the figure moved away from the entrance more details began to emerge like the belt that held a pair of swords, or the metal needle the person toyed with in her hand and that her skin was blue; a worryingly familiar shade of blue. The figure seemed to smile even more viciously as she saw the recognition.

"Aww how sweet of you to remember my species. But how rude of me not to introduce myself; my name is unimportant but I am the general of the tenth tribe of Oni" the looks she got when she revealed this was of shock, surprise and curiosity? "What? Thought there were only 9 generals. Didn't hear about me? Typical of Tarakudo to leave his biggest success and shame out of history"

The shadows receded a little from around our heroes but they could now see that they were surrounded with female Shadowkhan, all of them wearing outfits similar to the general but with additional face masks. "See you're in my trap. Now would you be so kind and hand over the shadow scrolls before you finish up your protection magic; well the scrolls, the misuterii chest, some of the tapestries and anything else that I deem valuable or magical, haven't looked around yet."

Jackie had no idea what to do; strange Shadowkhan surrounded them and the demon general was blocking the entrance. Uncle and Tohru were both tired and disarmed currently, but he doubted they would remain unarmed; their chi casters were pierced but still intact, if secured to the floor.

Jackie looked back at the demon general and noticed that the confident smile on her face was slowly slipping as her eyes travelled around the room. He could make out a growl like noise coming from her direction as a frown started to replace the smile.

"I see everything I want except for one item; there is only one empty display case in this room" her eyes locked onto Jackie's and he couldn't help but shiver as he stared into those cat like eyes. "What have you done with the misuterii chest? Did you feel the need to open up Pandora's Box, as I have, and see what she saw with your own eyes? That privilege is my own to have and I will not allow anyone else the honour. So if you value your lives you will give it to me."

Her voice never wavered as she spoke her demand; the only emotions Jackie could make out was the annoyance you could see on her face. Jackie heard uncle scoff at the demons words and knew that whatever uncle was going to say would just make matters worse.

"Legend of Pandora is from Greece not Japan. One more thing, why would uncle want to open box containing the world's evils. One more thing, what would uncle do with such an object if he had it. One more thing, uncle is good guy; we don't go stealing rare artefacts. One more..."

"Uncle pleases!" Jackie yelled to him as he saw the demons face darkens with anger.

"You all are trying my patience. Give me the chest or run for your lives. Oh and old man, Pandora opened a jar not a box in the original translation."

"We don't have the chest" Jackie said quickly before his uncle could get worked up any more. "Someone stole it earlier today. We spent far too long being interrogated about the incident for us to have done it and not be in pris..." Jackie never got to finish his sentence; he was hoisted into the air by the hand that was suddenly around his neck. Air was already becoming a problem as he started to grasp at the hand and all it seemed to do was make the Oni general growl like a big cat.

"If that is the case then you will give me every piece of information that your interrogators got from you about the person who stole the chest" Jackie knew that the talks were over and seeing that he couldn't wiggle out of the grip around his neck he quickly brought his foot up and smashed it into her jaw.

The sudden strike came as a shock to everything in the room; not a sound was heard as the audience watched the demon general stumble off her feet while Jackie managed to catch himself and land in a defensive stance, waiting for her to get back up.

This action was the spark to the fuel; seeing their general on the ground, the Shadowkhan around our heroes launched themselves with the soul intent of taking revenge for such a cheap shot.

They mainly focused uncle and Tohru since it was clear that they both had the biggest potential to interfere with the generals plans, and because their general was already back onto her feet and going after the fool who hit her.

Tohru was struggling the most out of all of our heroes; not only was he still winded from the protection ritual they had just chanted, but also because these Shadowkhan were almost impossible for him to hit. They were ridiculous agile and seemed to be able to predict were his he was going to strike before he had decided.

Even when Tohru managed to grab one of them to throw into the wall; as soon as he threw it, the Shadowkhan latched onto his hand and used the momentum of the throw to turn it back onto Tohru and actually launched him over its shoulder in a judo throw.

This move caught some of its sister Shadowkhan by surprise, since they were right under the mountain as it collapsed. But even this sudden attack wasn't enough to catch all of the Shadowkhan that were about to get crushed; a few managed to survive thanks to their reflexes.

Uncle was faring better than his apprentice. He was agile enough, even at his age to block and dodge some of the Shadowkhan while he moved towards the chi blasters. He wasn't able to stop them all unfortunately and it was beginning to show as his moves started to get sloppy.

It was the impact of Tohru hitting the ground that caused him to cheer. The thud caused the ground to shake and be enough of a distraction for him to reach the casters. Tohru being thrown was doubly good because not only had it drawn attention away from him, but it also knocked the pins holding the blowfish and newt out of the floor.

While Tohru was having the most difficulty Jackie was defiantly in a life or death situation and it was only thanks his martial art training that was keeping him alive. The Shadowkhan general was relentless with her strikes as she chased him around the room. She hadn't drawn her swords yet, but Jackie assumed that it was because she still wanted to know where the chest was.

Jackie felt the ground shake as Tohru landed and he winced in sympathy, but that was all he could do; the general chasing him hadn't been affected by the noise or the ground tremor in the slightest.

Now that uncle had his weapon of choice once again he quickly started shooting at the Shadowkhan around Tohru and himself, while he also went to each display case and poured some of the final potion over it completing the protection spell for the object. He knew that Jackie was in far too severe a fight to be distracted and he saw that Tohru was out cold thanks to his impact with the floor.

He was still being attacked while doing all of this as well, making him not be as careful with his potion as he would have liked to be. In fact he actual ran out of the potion before he could finish; now there was just one vile of it left and Tohru had it on him.

Fighting his way over to his apprentice was becoming very hard. He was getting tired and the Shadowkhan had long since caught on to what the green beams did to them and were now using their agility to avoid them. They were sloppy at it when they also tried to attack him and uncle did have cover now thanks to the pieces already covered with the protection magic. He could slip behind them to guard a side, or make a Shadowkhan impact one and be dispersed as if he shot it.

Jackie had managed to get himself cornered by the general and had nowhere else to run. He was currently trading blows with her at the far end of the room away from everything else that was going on, so both of them were surprised to see a green beam come right for the general. A quick separation for both combatants and then they realised that they were the only ones still fighting.

Looking around the room both combatants could see that all of the Shadowkhan have been banished, Tohru was lying on the ground out cold with uncle standing next to him panting quite hard. While Jackie could not see it, the general could see a green glow around the display cases.

"Looks like you are out of an army and your trap failed on you" came Jackie's witty reply as he saw how the battle faired.

"A tactical retreat is in order I think. I am still too rusty from my sleep to deal with you all together. But I will find out who took that chest one way or another" and with that she throws a smoke bomb down onto the floor and disappears.

Seeing the smoke clear to reveal that the demon had indeed gone, Jackie and uncle let out a big sigh before Jackie collapsed onto the floor. He was exhausted he didn't know how much longer he could have gone on; if it wasn't for uncles timing who knows what would have happened.

Hearing his uncle start to chant Jackie looked over to see that he was standing next to Tohru pointing his blow fish at him. Before Jackie could ask what he was doing a green beam shot out of the fish and impacted Tohru; a few seconds of this and Tohru started to wake up.

"Easy, uncle had to give you some of his chi in order to wake you up. Now come, we need to inform Capitan black that we have found new evil against the world."

"Sensei I believe we should re-ward the shop. The protection spells will have been weakened since the last time they were used and from what we saw just now this new demon general is very dangerous."

"You may be right Tohru, and as quickly as possible. Uncle does not like the way she talked when she left; as if she wasn't worried about this defeat. It is a dark sign if it is true."

By now Jackie had made his way over to Tohru and was now helping the sumo up.

"Well at least we managed to stop her from taking any of the artefacts. Grunt, now as soon as we can locate whoever stole the chest then things should go our way, OWW!"

"Have you learnt nothing from our past Jackie! There are countless other artefacts of evil out there; we were lucky that she wanted the shadow scrolls and they were in our back yard. We must do research and find out what she is after and what she wants. We are fortunate that female demons are very rare, especially Japanese demons; that gives us something to work on.

"Now let's make sure that protection magic is working and then get back to the shop." With that uncle turns and starts looking over the glass cabinets. Not thinking of anything else to do Jackie and Tohru started doing the same.

It didn't take the three men long, only a few minutes, to make sure that all of the cases were fully protected. Sighing in relief that the night was almost over they were just leaving the room when black smoke started to spew out of one of the cases. Rushing over to it the three men stared in disbelief as the shadow scrolls started to dissolve; before long all that was left of them was a pile of ash.

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Hope you enjoyed this chapter. As, I'm sure, with everyone on this site reviews are very much appreciated and encouraged with a thanks in advance. No real words of wisdom to surrender to you all, so until next time, look after yourselves!


	5. Chapter 5

Hello one and hello all; welcome to this chapter. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed planning it. I'd say writing, but at times that can be a little tedious during the dull moments. But enough ramblings! On to what you came here for. Enjoy

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**The Tenth Tribe**

**Chapter: 5**

**From One Storm to Another**

It was close to midnight by the time Jackie uncle and Tohru got home; hours later than Jackie wanted to be. Before uncle could grab his attention about warding the shop from the new evil at large Jackie climbed the steps to the living area to check on jade. She didn't pick up when he phoned to let her know they were coming home and that worried him. Jade was normally quite a light sleeper even if she struggled to get out of bed in the mornings, so her not hearing her cell phone ring after two attempts was not a good sign in his books.

Entering her room he had to admit that it was too quiet. He smiled a little when he noticed cough medicine on her bedside table, he was also surprised to find a bowl of cold water there as well and that she had placed a damp wash cloth on her head before going to sleep. _'She really can look after herself.'_ Taking the cloth off from her head he mindlessly went through the routine of cooling the cloth down again as he thought about the events of the night.

Why did the shadow scrolls turn to ash? Was it because they reacted badly to the good magic surrounding them? But if that was true then how were they protected from evil before now? Jackie didn't think this was correct, but the tests that uncle had done on the ash confirmed that it was thanks to the good magic around the scrolls that caused them to be destroyed. They had to be missing something!

Sighing once again Jackie finished ringing out the wash cloth and placed it back onto his nieces head, brushing her hair out of the way first_. 'I wonder why jade hasn't asked for a hair cut yet. Normally she's very adamant that she wants short hair, but it looks like it hasn't been cut in a month. Hehe maybe she's finally touching into her feminine side and growing it long. Wait didn't she just get her hair cut a couple of weeks ago? I'm sure she did;_ sigh_ better check to see if any of uncles potion ingredients are missing.'_

By now Jackie had his fingers lightly wrapped with her hair. Slowly untangling his fingers to prevent her waking up, he couldn't help but notice how pale jade's forehead was compared to his fingers. Peering a little closer Jackie got even more concerned as he noticed her skin actually had a blue tinge to it.

Jackie was worried now; he quickly left the room to collect a thermometer and checked her temperature by placing it under her armpit. Jackie's concern grew as jade was still out for the count even as he carefully manoeuvred her so he could get the thermometer under her armpit. The icing on the cake however was when he saw just how hot jade really was.

"39.2 degrees!(102.6F)" Jackie quickly left the room all the while calling for Tohru and fishing his cell phone out of his pocket.

"Jackie what is it what's wrong?" Tohru called as he ascended the stairs as fast as they would let him. Jackie didn't look up as he started dialling his local hospitals number.

"It's jade; she has a fever of 39.2. I'm calling the hospital to tell them that I am bringing her over, if you could carry her into the car with her quilt for me thanks. Oh, hi my name is..." Jackie turned around at the same time Tohru started to head off towards jades room.

Picking her up, quilt and all, Tohru started to shake with worry as he carefully carried her down the stairs and heading towards the door. He gave out a silent prayer to whoever was listening that the rains seemed to be letting up for now as he juggled with the door to Jackie's car and not dropping jade. Fortunately it was here that Jackie came to lend a hand and opened the door for Tohru to place jade into the car.

As Jackie drove off with jade Tohru was still shacking like a leaf, it got to the point that he had to hold onto his arms to try and calm down. He knew he was worried about jade but having this strong a reaction over it seemed wrong. As he calmed down he began to think and then it hit him.

"The wards! I didn't feel them at all when I left the shop; they must be completely down. I have got to get those back up as fast as possible" and with a determined glint in his eye Tohru went back into the shop to research.

Yami was worried, try as she might she couldn't make contact with her queen. She was currently meditating within the shadow realm, trying to contact her queen once again. From what she could gather from the visions her Shadowkhan have shown her, her queen was beginning to enter the final stages of the transformation. The transformation to become completely demon was, at the best of times, an exhausting and even painful time; but the mortal virus she had appeared to be causing complications.

Not only that, but with the volume of chi her queen had was also extending the process. This thought actually excited the general; her queen, with no foundation to magic, other than the few attempts she managed herself, was already on her fourth day of the transformation and her chi was still in the process of changing its nature.

This spoke wonders of just how much potential jade had within her. Yami had to agree with her queen's statement about her relatives; they truly were fools for not taking advantage of such a vast well of power.

Speaking of the devil Yami suddenly felt a connection to her queen and latched onto it before it had a chance to escape her clutches. With the tiny trace of a connection established Yami forced a portion of her conscious to try and communicate with her queen.

What she found upon her arrival was a black void of nothingness, the darkness held no warmth, and was if anything more oppressive than her time spent under Tarakudo. Shouting out into the nothingness Yami was rewarded by a slight moan that seemed to come from everywhere and yet nowhere. Spurred on by this revelation she called out again; her persistence was rewarded as a figure started to appear on the ground.

The figure was in a fatal position and appeared to be trembling slightly. Getting closer to the body Yami quickly realised that it was both a faded image of her queen, meaning that her connection to the mortal plane at best was as weak as her current connection to her queen; and that the trembling was actually more of a shiver of someone one being cold, not scared.

"My queen. Come on now wake up for me my queen" Yami called to jade as she lightly tapped the see through cheek. This produced the biggest response yet; one of the eyes opened to see what was going on before the other slowly did the same. Her queen was still see-through but at least a part of her conscience was responding.

"Mmm, nnngh. Huh. Yami? Wha, what's going on? Where are we? What are you doing?"

"We are within your mind. You must have completely lost consciousness after I left on my mission. The Shadowkhan I had protecting you showed me that your uncle has taken you to the hospital."

Jade blinked owlishly for a second or two as her brain was only firing on one cylinder and needed the extra time for the information to register.

"I'm at the hospital" Yami nodded her head in conformation "Jackie drove me over there after he got back from the museum" another nod from Yami set this information in her head. But she knew there was something missing, something that she needed to ask about that involved her uncle's trip the museum, but just couldn't think of what it was.

Jade was just too tired to think clearly, she guessed her illness was worse than she thought; she felt herself start to drift off once again. Apparently her tiredness was clearly visible because Yami quickly asked what she should be doing while her queen was indisposed. Jade couldn't get anything from her head to even start to make sense, let alone get it coherent enough to work out a plan of action.

A thought struck Jade from out of nowhere; didn't she already have an additional plan laid out and waiting for her to give the go ahead. It sounded like something she would do in case of just such an emergency.

"Start that other plan that I told you about" the words were slurring together but enough of them stayed apart for Yami to get an idea of what she meant.

"Which plan my queen? The aggressive or the infiltration plan?"

"Aggressive, _mumble mumble snort!_ NO! Must be different from _evry on else_. Place spies, make network. Know everything. Go quiet part 2. Pancake god says _mumble zzz..._" The see through jade disappeared from the plain indicating that Yami's connection to her queen had been lost once again.

This didn't worry her though; her mind was now focused on her queen's orders. Yami had gathered from the sleep induced ramblings that phase 2 was to start and it had to be done quietly. This would prove significantly harder than the aggressive plan Yami had thought of.

On top of that, it sounded like her queen wanted a spy network established as well. Yami simply turned from her spot and headed towards the door of the shadow plain that only she could see.

"You do like to give out challenges my queen. Established a base of operations away from prying eyes and leave nothing to tip off its location. So, I have to legally obtained an appropriate head quarters with minimal funds collected from various places to avoid additional suspicion. Sit tight my queen I may be gone for a day or so but I will obtain a place worthy of you."

Jackie was pacing back and forth within the waiting room of the hospital; he had no idea that jade was so ill. She was certainly pale and he thought she looked a little discoloured, but apparently even the slightest colouring change is quite the concern. She was rushed into the ward and was currently being tested for so many different things that Jackie couldn't remember even one of them.

Before long a young bald African American doctor with a goatee walked up to him with a neutral expression on his face.

"Mister Chan, your niece is in a stable condition and from the looks of things it was just a minor case of phenomena that we managed to catch before it got a chance to develop. However what is concerning us is her skin colour.

"Normally a situation like this is caused by a lack of oxygen circulating but so far there are no other symptoms to support this; her airways are clear and her O2 stats are within the normal range, if anything there a little on the high side. There is also no sign of trauma around the neck to indicate induced suffocation. I'd ask if she has been like this her whole like but the question is redundant since we have her GP report and nothing is mentioned anywhere about blue skin.

"We've taken some blood and have started testing to see what is causing this, and from what few results we have so far nothing appears to be wrong with her."

"If you can find nothing wrong with her when will I be allowed to take her home? I don't like the idea of her changing colour but if you can't find the problem..." Jackie left the question in the air but the doctor seemed to get at what Jackie was trying to say.

"From what I can tell so far nothing life threatening is happening to her. We would like to keep her at the hospital for a couple of days just for observation but if that all checks out then you should be able to take her back by then. Of course this would depend of her being completely healthy apart from her skin colour."

Jackie sighed in relief, while the thought of Jade changing colour terrified him for a reason he couldn't quite remember, the news that apart from that was still very reassuring. The doctor placed his hand on Jackie's shoulder in a reassuring gesture.

"You looked after her very well. From the last appointment there was nothing to indicate that this was anything other than a simple case of the flu. You can go and see her if you want but I don't think she will be waking up any time soon. What I would suggest is that you get yourself cleaned up before she sees you; no offence but it looks like you need more medical treatment than your niece" looking over himself, Jackie started to feel the aches and pains from his fight with the general. Sheepishly scratching the back of his head he followed the doctor to the clinic to get himself patched up.

Keeping to her queen's request, Yami stayed silent and unnoticed by everyone and everything as she and her Shadowkhan infiltrated every retail business and bank she stumbled upon and retrieved funding for her queen's plans. Her queen wanted no evidence at ALL and while she didn't say why Yami guessed that her queen's uncle must have access to quite an information network; so taking just 10 dollars per place she robbed should not leave sufficient evidence for anyone to pick up on. The problem was that this method was ineffective in gathering large funds; it was also very time consuming.

Daylight was starting to appear and she had only managed to collect 5000 dollars; looking at businesses that sold property she couldn't even attempt to buy a property with the measly sum of money she had collected so far and would take her months if she continued at the current rate.

Growling in frustration as she walked by yet another property shop with all of its buildings going for substantially over her current budget, her eyes are drawn to a bright and colourful poster advertising a place called Las Vegas.

Her knowledge of the present time was purely thanks to her time spent training her queen. Jade was adamant that she needed to learn about the current period in time; that not having it would be like walking around with a brightly glowing sign screaming "I'm the latest evil trying to take over the world! Please come and stop me!"

Within the short amount of time that Jade had to teach her general, she had managed to get a feel on what the most obvious things where in this time line. Like the currency of the country, how to get about using public transport, and who had the job of ensuring the peace.

Yami also glanced through the dictionary within her queen's room to make sure that the meaning of words hadn't changed. Yami felt that she could blag herself as a tourist from another country successfully if she got some of the stranger words wrong; though she would be keeping an eye out for these giant spiders that have apparently covered the world in a web that everyone must connect to_. 'I must remember to ask her majesty why they trust this 'Internet' to spiders once this mission is over.'_

Shaking her head out of that train of thought, she re-read the sign that was hanging in the window.

"Hmm, 'tour former Mafia gang hide outs before trying out your luck and beating them out of their money!' Well, well this 'Las Vegas' place has had its share of crime and gambling problems. I wonder if they still play Chō-Han in their gambling dens? Well, even if they don't its likely they will have something similar that I can swindle them out of the money I need.

"_Chuckle_ maybe I can even find some remains of old gangs that this Mafia drove out of business, and persuade them to help my queen. After all she's asked for a lot and a few extra hands that know what to do should get the ball rolling nicely; as the modern saying goes.

"Yes, thinking about it a trip to this 'Las Vegas' really is starting to sound better and better." And with that last comment to herself, Yami summons her Shadowkhan back to her before disappearing into the shadows with them, off to the desert land with fountains in front of every building.

Tohru sat down as heavily as he could without breaking the chair. It had taken the rest of the night, but the wards around the shop were now fully powered once again, meaning the family was safe from this new demon general and her Shadowkhan. Uncle was doing research on what this general might be looking for, as well as trying to find information on her. Unfortunately information on both questions was minimal at best and not really turning up any good leads; or too many leads but he couldn't narrow the list of items down without more information.

Uncle even tried a location spell to try and see what the general was up too. While he managed to pick up multiple shadow signals throughout the city there was nothing to indicate that anything was happening other than she was looking for something. Just to be sure though, Uncle would get Jackie to contact Capitan Black and see if anything was taken from the locations he had been able to see.

Speaking of Jackie, he had returned from the hospital not too long ago, looking a little better than when he had left with Jade. The bruises and cuts around his hands and face had been taken care of and this brought a slight smile to uncle. If Jackie had gotten looked at, then Jade must not be in that critical condition; this thought was confirmed as Jackie told both himself and Tohru what the doctor had told him.

With the news that Jade would be well and home again in a few days, the wards around the shop restored to full power and knowing that the demon general appears to not know what she is looking for, all of this allowed Uncle to call it a night and get some rest. Tomorrow was just starting, but a few hours rest to recover from such an intense night was certainly what his good chi called for.

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Ah another chapter done and dusted. Hope you liked it and thanks in advance for any and all reviews. Things should start to pick up in action on the next chapter, but if not then defiantly the one after; try and get a roller coaster of excitement going on with this thing. Hopefully the wont be too long, but I will be the first to admit that my time keeping on these things is not the best; but that a bit of OCD for you. To be perfectly honest I couldn't tell you if it's true or not, but I really do enjoy getting these stories of mine just so.


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